Word.ws English Dictionary

dearn

dearn is the alternative form of dern.

Meaning of dern

Noun (1)

dern (plural derns)

  1. (obsolete) A secret; secrecy.
  2. (obsolete) A secret place; hiding.
  3. (obsolete) An obscure language.
  4. (obsolete) Darkness; obscurity.

Noun (2)

dern (plural derns)

  1. (UK) A gatepost or doorpost.
    • So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door […]1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings

See all 9 meanings of dern

Forms of dearn

Noun
pluraldearns
Adjective
comparativemore dearn
superlativemost dearn
Verb
third-person singular presentdearns
present participledearning
past participledearned
pastdearned

Questions about dearn

What is dearn the alternative form of?
Dearn is the alternative form of dern.

Words near dearn in the dictionary

  1. dearmour
  2. dearmoured
  3. dearmouring
  4. dearmours
  5. dearms
  6. dearn
  7. Dearne
  8. dearned
  9. dearness
  10. dearnesses
  11. dearnful

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dearn (page history and authors); dern (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dearn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dearn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.